The Girls at the Kingfisher Club

by Genevieve Valentine

  This sense lasted until the moment Jo screamed up the stairs for them to get out.

  Then they ran.

  • • •

  Doris and Ella moved first, and burst from their room at the same moment—the other girls were already piling out of their rooms into the hall, charging for the back stairs.

  A few of them were clutching things in their arms; others had nothing but the clothes on their backs, but there was no time to go for anything now.

  Ella raced down the fourth-floor corridor with Hattie and Mattie just ahead, Doris and the others thundering on their heels.

  Doris fell back until they were all ahead of her—counting sheep.

  Their footsteps were enough to drown out any other sound in the place, but because Doris was last, the riot faded just enough for her to hear Jo’s voice, nearly buried, call out, “Nothing’s safe!”

  The girls sprinted past the kitchen—as she brought up the rear, Doris was just in time to see Walters rising as if to come after them, and Mrs. Reardon standing square in his way.

  (Doris wished, later, that there had been one moment’s respite in the escape, so she could have saluted the old lady on her way out.)

  By the time she reached the end of the alley, the others were running in pairs and threes, following Ella’s lead, heading across the street and around the corner and out of sight of anyone who might be looking out the windows of the house.

  Ella was cutting across the street with Hattie and Mattie close behind. The twins carried matching pairs of silver shoes—no surprise, thought Doris—but Ella was already too far away to see anything but a blond head and a pale green dress.

  Lily and Rose were next, charging hand in hand, and Araminta and Rebecca lagged a little behind (Araminta’s arms full of the ugly coats Jo had bought them a hundred years ago).

  Violet and Sophie were hanging back, glancing over their shoulders as if waiting for Doris, which made her so angry she could’ve spit.

  There was a moment’s sharp and unexpected sympathy for Jo.

  “Go on,” Doris snapped, “pick it up, this ain’t the waltz!”

  Ella and the twins were a full street away by now, and there was a flutter of panic that Doris tried to ignore. It would be all right—of course they’d stay together—wasn’t that what they were best at?

  At the corner, Doris heard the hum of an approaching truck, and from around the front of the house carried a rumble of raised voices, two of them men, and one of them unmistakably Jo.

  “Damn,” Doris breathed, but she didn’t dare stop. Jo had told them to go—they had orders.

  Ella and the twins were already out of sight. Lily and Rose seemed to have a bead on them, bearing left as they crossed the street, and Araminta and Rebecca had reached the facing curb safely and were turning to glance behind them, and even through her guilt at leaving Jo behind, Doris thought that the rest of them might end up making it after all.

  Then the truck rounded the corner.

  Doris had heard a rattle like that before—that was a passenger wagon, and the last time she’d heard it the cops were closing in on the Kingfisher to haul Jo to jail.

  “Down!” snapped Doris, and Violet and Sophie sank like magic into the nearest alley.

  Doris followed, twisting at the last second to try to get a look over her shoulder, but the rattle and thump of the truck suggested it was big and it was empty, and the only thing Doris could think of was Jo being hauled into it and disappearing. She pulled herself as far back into the dark as she could.

  She had to keep safe. There were Violet and Sophie to think about now.

  She closed her eyes and prayed the others were fast enough to get out of sight.

  (They had to be. Eight years of sneaking around wasn’t for nothing.)

  The truck slowed down. Doris pressed her forehead to the chilly stone, listened for shouting, wondered if she’d be able to run around front in time to punch the driver senseless and get her sisters back if he tried anything.

  She might be able to, but Sophie and Violet were waiting in the shadows, and then what would happen?

  For a few heartbeats, she felt like she was pulling out of her own skin.

  But then the sound of the truck puttered around the corner and was gone.

  Doris snuck to the edge of the alley and looked out, but by the knot in her stomach she already knew what she was going to see:

  Nothing.

  “Doris?” Violet whispered. “Did they make it?”

  “I don’t know,” said Doris. Then, “Come on.”

  They crossed—“Slow and steady,” Doris said under her breath, “the last thing we need now is to look guilty of something.”

  The traffic went another direction on this street, and they couldn’t be followed without fair warning from around the corner. The streets were quiet, but there were still enough kind faces that Doris could hide behind someone if she had to.

  They pulled up in a little knot in front of a church—good enough sanctuary in a pinch, Doris thought. It worked for Quasimodo.

  She looked up and down the street as far as she could for a sign of other Hamiltons, but she didn’t hold out much hope.

  They all knew how to disappear.

  They hadn’t been pulled in, at least. And if they were out in the world, and they weren’t alone, then maybe it would be all right.

  Violet and Sophie stood flat against the wall. They were out of breath, though Doris figured it was more from panic than the run. She was willing to bet the Hamilton sisters were the fittest group of girls in the city.

  And thankfully Jo had trained them well; all three of them were dressed decently, down to their catalog shoes, so that they looked like the junior typing pool leaving the office and not like a sleepover run amok.

  It was the first time Doris wanted to really thank Jo for the way she’d marshaled them. Jo had her faults, but lack of foresight wasn’t one.

  She could do this. They could do this.

  “All right,” said Doris in a stern voice, falling back on the facts—another borrowed habit of Jo’s. “We’re together, and we’re out of that damn house. So the worst is over, and now we have to decide what we’re going to do with ourselves.”

  The other two visibly relaxed at the idea that after the facts were sorted, they would be all right.

  For a moment there was the comfortable quiet of a cab as it pulled up to the curb of the Kingfisher, waiting for the night to begin.

  “Did you see where they went?” Violet asked.

  Doris shook her head.

  “They’re smart girls,” she said, which was true. After a moment she added, “I’m sure things will work out,” which was slightly more uncertain.

  “And Jo?” Sophie ventured.

  God only knew what had happened to Jo. Doris sighed.

  “If any of us is going to make it,” she said finally, “it’s going to be Jo.”

  She hoped.

  Violet looked up and down the street one last time, then laced her fingers in front of her as if it was an interview.

  “So,” she said, “what do we do now?”

  They looked strange somehow, and all at once Doris realized she had never seen Violet or Sophie outside in daylight.

  They seemed odd and out of place among the other girls on the street; they had the flinty confidence of their older sisters from years of going dancing underground, and the prison pallor of two frightened little girls whose world had just flipped over.

  But they only waited for her to instruct them; Violet didn’t even look around at passing strangers, she was watching Doris so intently for her orders.

  It was almost sweet, Doris thought, even as she thought, Thank God these two hadn’t ended up on their own. They were so young, and so used to someone else having plans for them.

 
Not that Doris could talk.

  She wished she’d read more novels about desperate young ladies who found sensible, lucrative jobs without any education or references.

  Her first instinct was to head for the Kingfisher, but Jo had shouted that nothing was safe, and Jo knew her business. Now wasn’t the time to test theories about where the police might be waiting.

  Going back to that house was absolutely out of the question.

  They had no money to reach someplace outside the city—and even if they did, Doris couldn’t imagine leaving until there was some idea where everyone else had gone.

  (This city was still home, even after everything; surely they would all stay here and try to find each other. Surely no one would go too far until they knew for sure that everyone else was all right.)

  There was really nowhere left to go, unless she took a very long shot.

  Finally, Doris shrugged.

  “I guess we’ll find out if I have any taste in men,” she said.

  • • •

  Doris decided on the Ansonia Hotel as the place to make the phone call.

  (A long time ago, some man at the Kingfisher had told her that’s where he was staying while he was in town. He had described the hotel in vague terms that sounded interesting—“Seals in the fountain,” he’d said, and Doris still wasn’t sure if he’d been lying.

  Then he’d described the bedroom at a level of detail that made Doris nervous.

  “Just in case you’re looking for a place to spend the night,” he said, and gave her hand a squeeze like she was slow on the uptake.

  “I live in a convent,” she said. “Sorry. Thanks for the dance.”)

  She figured a hotel lobby—especially this lobby—was public enough not to draw attention, and there were a lot of places to disappear to, just in case.

  It looked enough like a castle fortress to make an impression, she’d give it that much. It soared up almost higher than they could see, round turrets and a thousand coils and curlicues, and stamps of copper and green against the sky.

  “Oh, that’s what it looks like at the top,” Sophie said as they got closer, and Doris thought about all the nights when Sophie had rested her head against the glass and watched the rooftops passing.

  As they walked through the doors, Doris said, “Try not to look too impressed, all right?”

  Violet, wide-eyed, said, “Too late.”

  Doris turned around, and didn’t blame her. It was like Paris had coughed into a lobby on the Upper West Side.

  “Then try to be forgettable, at least,” she told them. “Let’s see if I can sweet-talk somebody at the desk into a grubby phone call.”

  Violet raised her eyebrows at the idea of Doris sweet-talking anybody into anything, but Sophie only said, “All right,” and took Violet to a place within sight of the exit. (They were all learning fast.)

  As it turned out, the gentleman at the desk was more than happy to let Miss make a call. He handed off the telephone and smiled indulgently behind her at Violet and Sophie, who looked like a Coca-Cola advertisement as they gazed around the lobby.

  Thank goodness, Sam Lewisohn of Lewisohn & Son was an easy man to find.

  “Right,” Doris said, after she had hung up with the operator and shaken the clerk’s hand like they were about to arm wrestle. “We’re taking a long walk downtown. Strap your shoes tight.”

  “Don’t you want to call him first?” Sophie frowned. “What if he won’t take us in?”

  It was likely he wouldn’t want anything to do with them—his mother had wanted him to marry a Hamilton because it looked good or because she thought they had money. Now that neither one was going to be true, things were going to change, and quick.

  It was likely that the Lewisohns would turn them out on the street.

  On the other hand, Doris knew you didn’t have to take bad news gracefully. (Once pride was out of the way, a whole host of options opened up.)

  Doris wasn’t going to make it easy for them to say no. She could filibuster on a doorstep with Mr. Lewisohn Sr. until they had to run from the police, if that’s what it took to give Violet and Sophie a chance at protection from their father.

  “Then he gets to tell me no in person,” Doris said. “Come on.”

  • • •

  Lewisohn & Son operated from a building smack in the middle of the Garment District that had a rickety elevator that made you worry whether you’d ever reach the top, and Doris had to knock three times before someone heard her over the sound of machines and came to the door.

  The kid couldn’t have been any older than twelve, and for a second they regarded each other with equal surprise.

  The boy recovered first. “Yes?”

  “Doris Hamilton to see Sam Lewisohn, please,” Doris said, hoping this was still the thing to do when you came to someone’s door on business. Her most recent education in manners was about as old as this kid was. She’d never even knocked on a door that didn’t lead to a speakeasy.

  He disappeared, leaving the door open just enough that Doris would have felt rude stepping inside. Behind her, Violet and Sophie were fidgeting. She was hyperaware of them now, as if she’d grown an extra pair of limbs.

  “Someone to see you,” said the boy through the din. “Doris somebody.”

  There was the sound of a chair scraping the floor, and then footsteps, and then Sam appeared and opened the door halfway, trying not to smile. He wore glasses; they suited him.

  “Oh, that Doris,” he said.

  She laughed despite herself, but as he looked past her to her sisters she remembered the situation they were in. That sobered her up, and she took a breath, shoring up for the long argument.

  “There’s been some trouble at home, Sam.”

  His face changed as he registered her words, her tone, her expression.

  He said, “I see.”

  Before Doris could explain—before she could even open her mouth to say anything else—he stepped aside and waved them in.

  It’s odd, Doris thought, how fast you can fall in love with someone.

  twenty-one

  Hop Skip

  Rebecca and Araminta froze at the sound of the truck.

  There wasn’t enough time to hide without looking suspicious.

  Rebecca thought quickly.

  By the time the truck had rounded the corner and was passing them, they were walking arm in arm, coats draped over their shoulders, pretending to giggle at some joke and taking no notice of the truck at all.

  Rebecca held something in her right hand under the knot of their joined arms, half-hidden by fabric, and prayed it looked like a purse and not like a woolen stocking shoved full of dollars and coins.

  (When you’d saved as much as Rebecca had saved, you kept it close at hand, in something easy to carry. When you were Rebecca, you didn’t think about the aesthetics of that thing until it was too late.)

  Araminta was trembling, but when Rebecca squeezed her hand to remind her of her part, Araminta laughed all at once, light and clean as a bell, and for a moment Rebecca caught hold of the sweet sound and felt bold.

  The boldness lasted until the corner, when the fear set back in.

  “Let’s get out of here,” she said, and they let go of each other, shoved their arms into their sleeves, and picked up the pace.

  Rebecca’s mind was already a mile ahead of them.

  They walked for a long time in a comfortable silence, which Rebecca thought was strange—they shared a room but nothing else, and had never been able to do so much as dress without getting on one another’s nerves.

  (“Again?” Araminta had sighed whenever Rebecca pulled out the gold dress.

  Rebecca had gotten so used to it that she was almost annoyed if Araminta let it go; what was the point in wearing the same dress every night they went out if it wouldn’t p
ut Araminta out of sorts?)

  They slowed down several streets later, when the hum of crowded businesses overtook the hush of houses and it was easy to shuffle through strangers without attracting attention.

  “We’ve lost the others,” said Araminta, looking dolefully over her shoulder. “We’ll have to go back for them.”

  “No going back,” Rebecca said. “We don’t know who that truck was for—God forbid we go back and get caught. And Father’s probably still murderous, and the rest of them will all have scattered by now.”

  “They’ll be in trouble!”

  “We’re not,” said Rebecca.

  Araminta looked around as if that wasn’t a comfort.

  Rebecca thought it over, trying to stay somewhere between optimistic and realistic.

  “If any of them managed to get hold of a little money, they’ll probably be all right. If not, they can probably wheedle some off a fella. Or steal it.”

  Off Araminta’s scandalized look, Rebecca said, “They’ll need money, and they’re quick on their feet. Sometimes you make do. Don’t look at me like I’m suggesting they pose naked in the Hudson for pennies, please.”

  Araminta tried to compose herself. Rebecca appreciated the effort, if not the effect.

  (Of all the sisters to be stranded with, she thought, with a certain fondness.)

  “We’ll have to think about what to do,” Rebecca said, “and situate ourselves, and then we can think of a way to reach them.”

  “The Kingfisher,” Araminta said at once.

  Rebecca had been thinking the same, but she also thought of Jo’s return the morning after she’d been in jail. It was a mistake worth learning from: if you were going to go someplace that could get raided, you’d better have a place to reach someone who would bail you out.

  No such luck.

  Even if the Kingfisher was all right, Rebecca couldn’t quite imagine wandering on the streets all day until it got dark, hoping not to get caught. Even one day was too long to go without a safe place waiting.

  Jo had proved that, too.

  Rebecca felt a pang, let the idea of the Kingfisher go.